The Generation Equality Forum which was held in Paris and virtually, concluded with bold gender equality commitments, including the launch of a global 5-year action journey, and US$40billion in investment pledges, to help accelerate gender equality and end injustice against women by 2026. \u00a0Here is a roundup.<\/strong> (Photo: UN Women\/Fabrice Gentile)<\/p>\n

The Generation Equality Forum took place between 30 June \u2013 2 July, and engaged nearly 50,000 people across the globe. The much-heralded event saw the launch of a\u00a0Global Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0designed by six Action Coalitions \u2013 multi-stakeholder partnerships that have identified the most critical actions required to achieve gender equality in areas from gender-based violence and technology to economic and climate justice.<\/p>\n

The Forum<\/a> also launched a Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action, and announced new gender equality initiatives focused on health, sports, culture, and education.<\/p>\n

US$40billion confirmed investments<\/h5>\n
Moving forward, the Forum\u2019s action-oriented agenda will be under-written by nearly US$40billion of confirmed investments as well as ambitious policy and programme commitments from governments, philanthropy, civil society, youth organizations and the private sector.<\/p>\n
The monumental conclusion comes at a critical moment as the world assesses the disproportionate and negative impact that COVID-19 has had on women and girls. Gender equality advocates have pressed for gender-responsive stimulus and recovery plans to ensure that women and girls are not left behind as the world re-builds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Among many other high profile speakers at the event, US Vice President Kamala Harris said in remarks via video link: \u201cI believe, as you all do, that addressing gender equity and equality is essential to addressing every other challenge we face, which is certainly true in light of the current threats to democracy\u2026Around the world, democracy is in peril. \u00a0Strong men have become stronger\u2026as we move forward, I believe that if we want to strengthen democracy, we must fight for gender equality. \u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, herself a former and only female Vice President of South Africa, said: \u201cThe Generation Equality Forum marks a positive, historic shift in power and perspective. Together we have mobilized across different sectors of society, from south to north, to become a formidable force, ready to open a new chapter in gender equality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0She added: \u201cThe Forum\u2019s ecosystem of partners \u2013 and the investments, commitments and energy they are bringing to confront the greatest barriers to gender equality \u2013 will ensure faster progress for the world\u2019s women and girls than we have seen before.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n
\n
Around the world, democracy is in peril. \u00a0Strong men have become stronger\u2026 to strengthen democracy, we must fight for gender equality. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
UN Women will maintain a critical role driving the Forum\u2019s 5-year action journey, overseeing the implementation of commitments to ensure accountability and progress over the next five years.\u00a0
The US$40billion investment, represent a major step-change in resourcing for women\u2019s and girls\u2019 rights. Lack of financing is widely understood to be a major reason for slow progress in advancing gender equality and in enacting the women\u2019s rights agenda of the milestone 1995 Beijing Conference.<\/p>\n
By the close of the Forum, governments and public sector institutions had committed to US$21Billion in gender equality investments, the private sector US$13billion, and Philanthropy US$4.5billion. UN entities, international and regional organizations committed an aggregate of US$1.3billion.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
The US$40billion investment, represent a major step-change in resourcing for women\u2019s and girls\u2019 rights.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
In addition to these bold investments, many organizations made strong policy and program commitments, including 440 civil society organizations and 94 youth-led organizations. Forum organizers expect that the approximately 1,000 commitment-makers confirmed to date will be joined by many others over the next five years.<\/p>\n
A roster of commitments<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Also unveiled were a wide range of commitments from every sector, with examples including:<\/p>\n
\n
The United States Government\u2019s commitment to a range of significant policies and investment requests including an investment of USD 1 Billion to support programmes to end violence against women, and USD 175 Million to prevent and respond to gender-based violence globally<\/li>\n
The expansion of the Global Alliance for Care, initiated by the Government of Mexico and UN Women. This now includes over 39 countries; for example, the Government of Canada\u2019s commitment of USD 100 Million to address inequalities in the care economy globally, as a parallel to significant investment in its own care system<\/li>\n
The Government of Burkina Faso\u2019s work with Benin, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Togo to develop shared commitments related to family life education; free care for pregnant women and children under five years; and pursuing legal and social change to end gender-based violence, including FGM and child marriage\u00a0<\/li>\n
The Malala Fund\u2019s commitment to provide at least USD 20\u00a0Million in feminist funding to girls education activists\u00a0<\/li>\n
P&G\u2019s commitment to advance women\u2019s economic justice and rights through its global value chain by spending USD 10 Billion with women-owned and women-led businesses through 2025<\/li>\n
The Government of Bangladesh\u2019s pledge to increase women\u2019s participation in the ICT sector, including the tech start-up and e-commerce sector, to 25 per cent by 2026 and 50 per cent by 2041.\u00a0<\/li>\n
PayPal\u2019s commitment of USD 100 Million to advance women\u2019s economic empowerment<\/li>\n
Raise Your Voice Saint Lucia\u2019s commitment to collaborate with Caribbean NGOs to advocate for the recognition of the LGBTQI+ community and to undertake region-wide legislative reform to minimize discrimination and victimization\u00a0<\/li>\n
Open Society Foundation\u2019s commitment of at least USD 100 million\u00a0\u00a0over five years to fund feminist political mobilization and leadership<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n
\n
The COVID-19 context and other barriers are now an even greater inspiration for innovation, solidarity and inclusion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
Reflecting on the Forum, African Union Goodwill Ambassador on Ending Child Marriage Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, said, \u201cThis week, I relived the experience of 1995, when I was a young women\u2019s rights activist at the Beijing Conference. The COVID-19 context and other barriers are now an even greater inspiration for innovation, solidarity and inclusion. I am grateful for the commitments made this week. Now it\u2019s time to invest in girls and young women even more \u2013 for resources to reach rural and marginalized communities, for technology for public good and available to all, and for Member States\u2019 greater accountability to human rights of women and girls.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Generation Equality Forum which was held in Paris and virtually, concluded with bold gender equality commitments, including the launch of a global 5-year action journey, and US$40billion in investment pledges, to help accelerate gender equality and end injustice against women by 2026. \u00a0Here is a roundup. (Photo: UN Women\/Fabrice Gentile) The Generation Equality Forum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-feed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}